Day 5: Mass

September 4, 2015

Today began very different than any day of school I had in my K-12 education; we went to mass. Every Friday the entire school attends mass. This was actually my first time at a Catholic church so I found it very interesting to compare/contrast my experiences from my church with this mass. My first grade class behaved very well and I was impressed with how quietly and still they sat for the hour we were at the church.

After church "Fun Friday" began. This is just the term my co-op has for each Friday. During the centers (which are done daily), instead of the usual worksheets, there are different activities. The students loved the switch up. Instead of the writing station, there was a listening station. Students got to listen to a book, or books, on CD and follow along using the physical book. The math station and word work station each had games, math war and popcorn sight words, respectively. In order to participate in Fun Friday centers, students must have their "centers folders" completed. Throughout the week students have a folder they take with them to centers. One side of the folder is labeled 'Finished' and the other side is labeled 'Needs Completed'. They place all of their work from the centers in the folders. Today the teacher taped the worksheets to the board that were to be in the folder. She then placed a chair in the classroom where the students were told to put their folder when they were done. If they had all of their work completed and it was placed on the chair, the students would get a sticker to add to their folder and a prize from the prize box. My co-op explained to me how this is a big test of responsibility for them so she didn't want me to help them by showing them what needed to be completed or where to put their folder. Most students did very well with following all of the directions. Only 2 students were delayed in starting the centers because of their folders not being completed. I liked this concept a lot. I'm curious to see how they improve throughout the year with this task.

Today there was also a sight word test. Each student was called up one at a time. I was very excited when my intervention student that I have been working with one-on-one got a 10/10 on his test. This was very rewarding. It was great seeing how excited he was as well.

The last observation from today that I wanted to discuss was from the second grade classroom. I was in this room for about 45 minutes while my class was at their special. During this time the second graders were taking a religion test. I found it interesting that their chapter test was in their workbooks that they keep with them at all times and take home with them each night. I never had a class before, or observed a class before that had access to their tests in advance. I'm not sure how I feel about it either. I think if I were the teacher I would take out the tests from the book in advance.